Death Penalty News

Convicted of killing two women ― including his wife ― and admitting to two more murders while on death row, Barnes destroyed numerous families. For his actions, the state of Florida will inject him with poison on Aug. 3 and his life will end. The pain and suffering he imposed on his victims' families will surely simmer on. But at least one family is hoping his execution brings them some sort of point to reset, or at least a chance to live the rest of their lives out from under his shadow of violence and blood.

A former sheriff's deputy has been found not guilty of failing to protect students when a gunman opened fire at a Florida high school in 2018. Scot Peterson stayed outside during the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, near Miami. Mr Peterson, the school's resource officer, was found not guilty of 11 charges including felony child neglect, culpable negligence and perjury. The attack, among the deadliest at a US school, saw 17 killed and 17 injured. Mr Peterson, 60, put his head in his hands and began sobbing as the verdicts were read out in court in Fort Lauderdale. After the verdict, Mr Peterson told reporters that he would like to talk to the parents of the students who were killed.

(Bloomberg) -- Swedish police have given a permit to a man planning to burn a Koran near the main mosque in central Stockholm on Wednesday afternoon, in what could be the first such display since a similar event led to a breakdown in negotiations with Turkey about the Nordic country’s NATO membership. The permit was granted to a man who has won court appeals after his previous applications for permission to burn the Koran outside of Iraq’s embassy in the Swedish capital were denied by police, broadcaster TV4 reported. If the event takes place as scheduled outside the main mosque on the Sodermalm island in the city center, it would be the first public act of its kind in Sweden since a Danish-Swedish far-right extremist caused an uproar in Turkey and other Muslim countries by burning a translated copy of the Koran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in January. 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama prison system said Monday that it is not ready to carry out executions by nitrogen hypoxia despite a remark by the attorney general’s office suggesting the untested method could be used next month. The Alabama Department of Corrections said the state has done many of the preparations, but it is not ready to use the untested execution method. “The protocol for carrying out executions by this method is not yet complete. Once the nitrogen hypoxia protocol is complete, ADOC personnel will need sufficient time to be thoroughly trained before an execution can be conducted using this method,” the department said in an emailed response.

Reed, a Black man on death row for more than 25 years, has gained international support for his claims that he did not kill 19-year-old Stacey Stites, a white woman. Another appeal over DNA testing of evidence is still pending. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Rodney Reed a chance for a new trial Wednesday, nearly four years after halting his execution and ordering the trial court to weigh whether Reed might be innocent in the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites. In a 129-page ruling , Texas’ highest criminal court delivered a crushing blow to Reed, who has been on Texas’ death row for more than a quarter-century. The 55-year-old’s case gained international attention as his execution neared in 2019, with a new swell of supporters doubting his guilt in 19-year-old Stites’ murder and calling for his life to be spared.

June 28, 2023 marks the 30th anniversary of the exoneration of Kirk Bloodsworth (pictured), the first person exonerated from death row with DNA evidence.  In the three decades since he was exonerated from Maryland’s death row, Mr. Bloodsworth has been a vocal advocate for criminal justice reform.  He played an essential role in ending the death penalty in Maryland in 2013 and served as director of Witness to Innocence, an organization of death row exonerees. Since Mr. Bloodsworth’s exoneration, 28 additional death row prisoners have been exonerated on the basis of DNA evidence. 

The resentencing hearings of several death-sentenced men in Florida came to an abrupt halt last week as the Florida Supreme Court considers the effect of the state’s new capital sentencing law. Earlier this year, the Florida legislature passed a new capital sentencing law to allow juries to impose a death sentence if at least 8 out of 12 jurors vote in favor. But several death row defendants who were scheduled to be resentenced objected that the new law unfairly made their chances of being sentenced to death more likely. The Florida Supreme Court will now determine whether the old law, requiring a unanimous death sentence, or the new law, requiring only 8 jurors in favor, will apply when they are resentenced.

A man who drove a BMW into pedestrians in Tianhe District, Guangzhou – killing five and injuring 13 – has been sentenced to death.  Five people were killed and 13 others wounded following a car crashing into a crowd of people in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province. Videos circulating on Chinese social media showed a black BMW crashing into people crossing the road outside the Grandview Mall in the city’s Tianhe district.  "He deliberately drove into the people who were waiting for the traffic light. He rammed the car into them maliciously. After that, he made a U-turn and hit people again," an eyewitness told local outlet Hongxin News, as quoted by the BBC.

President Joe Biden made history in 2021 when he became the first president to publicly oppose the death penalty. It wasn’t a position he spoke about often but tucked into his campaign platform was a promise to work with Congress to abolish the federal death penalty through legislation and incentivize states to do the same.  In July 2020, the Trump administration ended a 17-year de facto moratorium on federal executions and killed Daniel Lewis Lee. Over the next several months, former President Donald Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr raced to execute as many people as possible before leaving office. Dustin Higgs, a Black man scheduled to be executed on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, was the thirteenth and final person to be killed. Ultimately, he died in the early hours of the following day while suffering from COVID-19, just four days before Biden’s inauguration. Like many of the people executed before him, there were extensive unresolved legal issues in Higgs’ cas...

The victims' families said justice was served 33 years and 44 days later. The families of the victims in a Cape Coral decades-old double homicide sighed, cried and ultimately clapped, thanking the judge, after Joseph Zieler was sentenced to death. Relatives of 11-year-old Robin Cornell and her babysitter, Lisa Story, 32, said it's taken 33 years and 44 days. "June 26 is the new date to remember," family and friends reinforced for each other as they hugged. "I was broken beyond what I ever thought I could come from," Jan Cornell, Robin Cornell's mother, testified. Jan Cornell said she couldn't let it go.

ALABAMA (WHEN) – A convicted Madison County murderer who is scheduled to be executed in July has filed a petition to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia instead of lethal injection. The Alabama Attorney General recently objected to his motion, saying it was “time-barred,” unfounded, and contrary to the public interest. James Barber was arrested in the 2001 death of 75-year-old Dorothy Epps. He was charged with murder, the murder being committed in the course of the robbery or attempted robbery at Epps, and Barber eventually confessed to authorities after his arrest. Barber was convicted in 2004 and a Madison County jury recommended by an 11-to-1 vote that he be sentenced to death. May 2 in the Alabama Supreme Court issue a death sentence for Barber, authorizing the state to carry out his execution anytime after June 2.

In a post-trial press conference on Monday, 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen joined several city leaders and public safety officials in praising the heroism shown during the Club Q shooting, as well as the law enforcement and prosecutorial efforts that led to Anderson Aldrich pleading guilty to more than 51 charges and being sentenced to more than 2,000 years in prison , with no possibility of parole or appeal. But with an emotional and arduous trial behind him, and with Aldrich unlikely to ever leave prison alive, Allen also had some strong words for the Club Q assailant as well as Colorado laws that prevented his office from pursuing the death penalty.

Prosecutors say they are seeking the death penalty against a man accused of stabbing four University of Idaho students to death late last year. Bryan Kohberger, 28, is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths at a rental house near the Moscow, Idaho, university campus last November.  Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson filed the notice of his intent to seek the death penalty in court in Boise on Monday. A not-guilty plea was entered in the case on Kohberger's behalf earlier this year. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Tuesday.

The suspect accused of using an AR-style rifle to terrorize a Colorado LGBT nightclub – killing five people and injuring 19 others – has pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted murder. Anderson Lee Aldrich, 23, was sentenced Monday to five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the 2022 massacre at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Judge Michael McHenry also sentenced Aldrich to an additional 2,208 years in prison for the attempted murder charges. Aldrich also received a four-year sentence for bias-motivated charges, which are akin to hate-crime charges in other states. Prosecutors could not seek the death penalty because in 2020, Colorado abolished the death penalty – becoming the 22nd state to do so.

Alabama is claiming it could conduct next month’s planned execution by nitrogen hypoxia, becoming the first in the nation to use the new method. But the prison system disputes the agency’s claim, saying they aren’t ready. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office made the remark in a court filing last week, arguing against James Barber’s wish to die by the approved but not yet tested method. Barber, who is set to die at some point during a time frame beginning at midnight on Thursday, July 20, and ending at 6 a.m. on Friday, July 21, has asked a federal court to call off his lethal injection and rule that he is only allowed to die by nitrogen suffocation. In a court filing, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office wrote that if the federal judge decides to rule in Barber’s favor, “such an injunction should be limited in scope so as to permit Barber’s July 20, 2023, execution to be conducted by nitrogen hypoxia.”

Short on guards, the state hopes to attract students enrolled in career training programs once they turn 18. PALESTINE, Texas — Kiara Guley wants to be a cosmetologist when she graduates from high school next year. But after taking a training program at the public school in this rural town, the 17-year-old has a Plan B: Become a prison guard. Hundreds of high schools across Texas offer classes to prepare students for careers in law enforcement, including corrections. This career-training program is the biggest of its kind in the country, enrolling almost 162,000 students in the school year that just ended. Every year, more than 2,500 Texas teens take classes focused on working in prisons and jails, studying subjects that include how to restrain prisoners and administer first aid in a prison setting. The Texas Education Agency sets curriculum standards , though teachers can use additional material.

Pablo Ibar ha afirmado sentirse "destrozado" ante la última decisión del Tribunal de Apelaciones del 4º Distrito de Florida, que ha rechazado los argumentos de su abogado, Joe Nascimento, quien había pedido la revocación de la cadena perpetua y la celebración de un nuevo juicio, "con todas las garantías", y ha considerado que esta decisión es como una "sentencia de muerte". El preso de origen vasco, que está acusado de un triple crimen perpetrado en 1994 en Estados Unidos, del que precisamente el lunes se cumplen 29 años, y cuya autoría siempre ha negado, ha enviado dos cuartillas de cuaderno manuscritas escritas desde la prisión a la Asociación Pablo Ibar-Juicio Justo en las muestra su desolación por el fallo del tribunal que ratifica la cadena perpetua que actualmente cumple, una decisión que califica de "falta de justicia".

A 26-year-old man, whose trial in a 2021 arson and stabbing case on Tokyo’s Keio Line began Monday, admitted to the actions and attempting to murder the man he stabbed, but denied having intended to murder anyone by starting the fire. In the first court hearing at the Tachikawa branch of the Tokyo District Court, Kyota Hattori, 26, who wore a costume resembling that of “Batman” villain the Joker during the incident , admitted to both stabbing a man and lighting a train carriage on fire, injuring 12 others. However, he denied parts of the indictment, saying that there was no intent to murder when he lit the carriage on fire. “I don’t know if the arson can be considered attempted murder,” Hattori said.

Two females have tendered their applications for the hangman post as the position became vacant for a long time. This is despite the Government’s considering abolishing the death penalty. However, the recruitment process has been shelved. The Government — through the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs — has completed nationwide consultations with the public and various stakeholders on a proposed move to abolish the death penalty. Consultations were carried out in at least three districts of each province, by teams drawn from the ministry.

Young children are seen participating in the murder actively, with no adult trying to prevent the children from throwing stones or even trying to prevent them from watching the bloody murder. Usman Buda, the deceased victim, worked as a butcher in the local market. In a disturbing and shocking incident from Nigeria’s Sokoto, a mob has brutally stoned a man to death over allegations of ‘blasphemy’. As per reports, the deceased person Usman Buda worked as a butcher in an abattoir in Sokoto city.  Locals accused him of blasphemous comments against Prophet Mohammad on Sunday, June 25.

Three San Antonio police officers have been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a woman who was experiencing what the city's police chief said was a “mental health crisis.” Sgt. Alfred Flores and Officers Eleazar Alejandro and Nathaniel Villalobos were suspended without pay and later arrested on murder warrants in the shooting death of Melissa Perez, 46, when she refused police orders to come out of her apartment, Police Chief William McManus said Friday. “The officers' actions were not consistent with SAPD's policy and training,” McManus said during a Friday night news conference. “They placed themselves in a situation where they used deadly force which was not reasonable given all the circumstances as we now understand them,” McManus said.

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); June 22, 2023: State media have reported the execution of an unidentified man for murder in Gorgan. According to Iran Online, a man was executed in Gorgan. The report which was published on 20 June, does not specify the date or exact location of the execution. The man only named as Hamed, is alleged to have committed murder on Hashem Abad Street on 28 May 2021. According to the 2022 Annual Report on the Death Penalty, at least 582 people were executed in Iran. Of those, 288 were executed for murder charges. Those charged with the umbrella term of “intentional murder” are sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) regardless of intent or circumstances due to a lack of grading in law. Once a defendant has been convicted, the victim’s family are required to choose between death as retribution, diya (blood money) or forgiveness.

Gov. DeSantis signs death warrant for man convicted of ‘brutal and ruthless’ 1988 rape, murder of nurse Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed a death warrant for a man who confessed to the 1988 rape and murder of a nurse in Brevard County. With DeSantis’ signature, 61-year-old James Phillip Barnes is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 3, FOX 13 reported. Barnes was sentenced to death in 2006 after pleading guilty to the violent murder of 41-year-old Patricia “Patsy” Miller.

Saudi Arabia has executed two Yemeni men for 'joining a terrorist group', the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Saturday. Abdulrahman Fares Amer al-Marri and Mohammed Salah Omar al-Marri received the death penalty for “joining, supporting and pledging allegiance to a terror group.” According to SPA, Abdulrahman established “a terror entity to carry out an operation in the Kingdom and kill security forces.” He was also found guilty of possessing machine guns and explosive belts, harboring men wanted on security charges and funding terrorism.

MANILA, Philippines — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has pardoned three convicted Filipinos – two of them on death row due to drug trafficking, Malacañang announced the other night. President Marcos had phoned and thanked UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Friday for granting his request to pardon the three Filipinos, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Cheloy Garafil said. In a statement, the PCO said it was Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr. who first informed Marcos about the pardons late Thursday after receiving a message from UAE Ambassador to the Philippines Mohamed Obaid Salem Alqataam Alzaabi.

A lawsuit that alleged Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs exceeded her power in refusing to execute a prisoner earlier this year has been dismissed at the request of attorneys on both sides of the case. The lawsuit dismissed Thursday had tried unsuccessfully to force the Democratic governor, who had ordered a review of Arizona’s death penalty protocols because of the state’s history of mismanaged executions, to carry out the execution of Aaron Gunches for his murder conviction in the 2002 killing of Ted Price. Hobbs has vowed to not carry out any death sentences until there is confidence the state can do so without violating the law. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office has said it wouldn’t seek any court orders to execute prisoners while the governor’s review of death penalty procedures is underway.

The family of a Philippine woman on death row in Indonesia for drug trafficking appealed to the national human rights commission Thursday to help save her from execution, while Manila hoped Jakarta would give her clemency. The Filipina, Mary Jane Veloso, 38, was arrested at an Indonesian airport in April 2010 with 2.6 kg (5.7 pounds) of heroin in her suitcase and later sentenced to death, but her scheduled execution in 2015 was postponed at the last minute after Manila asked that her case be reviewed. Indonesia has some of the world’s harshest anti-narcotics laws, but in March it granted a rare pardon to a woman who had been on death row for more than 20 years.

Clarence Thomas’s majority opinion ensures that innocent people will spend years behind bars. The Supreme Court just ruled that at least some federal prisoners who are completely innocent must serve out their entire sentence, with no meaningful way to challenge their unlawful conviction. One of the most fundamental principles of criminal law is that no one may be convicted of a crime unless the legislature previously passed a law making their actions illegal. If there is no law on the books that, say, marijuana possession is unlawful, then a judge cannot toss someone in jail because they were found with a joint.

The father accused of executing his three young sons could face the death penalty if convicted, according to the indictment. Chad C. Doerman is appearing in Clermont County Common Pleas Court for an arraignment hearing Friday morning, a day after he was indicted on nine counts of aggravated murder in their deaths. Police said Doerman, 32, confessed to shooting and killing his sons, Clayton Doerman, 7, Hunter Doerman, 4, and Chase Doerman, 3, at their Monroe Township home on June 15. Doerman appeared in Clermont County Common Pleas Court on Friday morning in shackles and dressed in orange jail clothing. An attorney for Doerman entered a plea of not guilty on all charges.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A man scheduled to be executed in September for the 1996 killing of a University of Oklahoma dance student plans to reject his chance for a clemency hearing, saying there is little hope the state’s Republican governor would spare his life. Anthony Sanchez, 44, said in a telephone interview Thursday from Oklahoma’s death row that even in the rare case when the five-member Pardon and Parole Board recommends clemency, Gov. Kevin Stitt is unlikely to grant it. “I’ve sat in my cell and I’ve watched inmate after inmate after inmate get clemency and get denied clemency,” Sanchez said. “Either way, it doesn’t go well for the inmates.” Sanchez cited the recent cases of Bigler Stouffer and James Coddington, both of whom were executed after the board voted 3-2 for clemency that was later rejected by Stitt.

NAIROBI, June 22 (Reuters) - Mohamed Ali doesn't believe gay Africans exist. He says homosexuality is a Western invention imposed on the continent. Openly gay Africans are liars seeking visas to the West or money from rights groups, he adds. Ali is a member of Kenya's parliament. He is desperate to follow neighbour Uganda by unleashing a sweeping legislative crackdown on LGBT people. Even if he happened to be sick in intensive care, he would ask to be dragged to parliament to approve it. "I will ask them to take me to vote for that, to kick them out, kick LGBT people out of Kenya completely," he said. Weeks after Uganda enacted one of the most draconian anti-LGBT laws on Earth, Kenya could be poised to follow suit with a similarly formulated bill that punishes gay sex with prison or even death in some cases, according to a draft of the law and two lawmakers backing it in parliament.

An Egyptian groom has been found guilty of brutally murdering his bride just hours after their wedding and will be sentenced to death, just months after the incident occurred. The shocking incident took place in Tanta, Egypt, and the court recently reached a decision regarding the perpetrator's fate. At the time of the event, security forces arrived at the scene, arresting the husband who confessed to the crime. According to his confession, the motive behind the murder stemmed from the victim's refusal to engage in sexual relations with him. The court sentenced the husband to death by hanging.

Seventy years ago, on June 19, 1953, our parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed after being convicted of federal charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. They were in their 30’s, and we were 10 (Michael) and 6 (Robert) when we last visited them at Sing Sing, the prison north of New York City where they were electrocuted. Today, compelling doubts about our mother’s guilt persist, and we call on the U.S. government to immediately release all documents related to her prosecution and execution, so that we and all Americans can finally know the truth about her case.

An Alabama man has pleaded guilty to shooting his pregnant wife twice in the head, killing her and their unborn son. Hunter James Tatum, 26, entered his plea to two counts of murder Wednesday morning in Autauga County. He was initially charged with capital murder and prosecutors were seeking the death penalty. Tatum’s plea came as his trial, which began last week, was wrapping up. Tatum’s wife, Summer, was five months pregnant with her first child – Everett. The deadly shooting happened on Oct. 18, 2021, in the bedroom of the couple’s on Sunset Court in Prattville.

Donald Trump has appeared to trip up by his own proposals on invoking the death penalty for caught drug dealers, having pardoned someone for drug-dealing offenses while president. In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier on Monday, the former president and current Republican frontrunner for 2024 was left momentarily lost for words after being told Alice Johnson would be put to death under his policy. Johnson had her sentence commuted in 2018 and received a full pardon in 2020. Despite previously calling for "everyone who sells drugs" to receive the death penalty, he then qualified that he thought use of the death penalty in drug-dealing cases "would depend on the severity" of the crimes. Newsweek approached the Trump campaign via email for comment on Wednesday.

BERLIN (AP) — The daughter of a California-based man sentenced to death in Iran has asked authorities in Germany to open criminal proceedings against members of the Iranian judiciary. The family of Jamshid Sharmahd, who is a German-Iranian citizen, says he was abducted by Iran while staying in Dubai three years ago. Iranian authorities accused him of planning a 2008 attack on a mosque that killed 14 people and wounded over 200 others. He was sentenced to death earlier this year. German and European diplomats have condemned the verdict, which comes amid an increase in executions by Iran. Germany follows the principle of universal jurisdiction, under which authorities can investigate serious crimes committed elsewhere in the world.

La defensa recurrirá ahora al Tribunal Supremo de Florida para intentar que deje sin efecto la pena Nuevo varapalo para Pablo Ibar. El Tribunal del Cuarto Distrito de la Corte de Apelaciones de Florida ha denegado el recurso de reposición solicitado por la defensa del estadounidense de origen vasco, que pidió la revocación de la condena a cadena perpetua que el mismo órgano judicial impuso el pasado mes de abril. Ahora, Ibar deberá acudir al Tribunal Supremo de Florida.

Like President Joe Biden, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards now says he is opposed to the death penalty and that he would like to see it abolished. While Biden equivocates, Gov. Edwards has an opportunity to turn his words into meaningful action. If he does so, the Democratic governor of a deep red state may offer an example for the president to follow. Edwards has been afforded this opportunity by 51 of Louisiana’s 57 death row inmates who, last week, filed requests for clemency with the Board of Pardons and Committee on Paroles. This unusual coordinated action is the first step in a process that affords Edwards the chance to take a large bite out of the state’s death row.

Mum convicted of killing baby in hostel toilet freed The Court of Appeal today released a 26-year-old woman after she spent almost 6 years behind bars for causing the death of her newborn in 2017. Nur Izzati Adi was convicted and sentenced to death by the Alor Star High Court in 2020 for murdering her baby through asphyxiation in the toilet on the third level of Kolej Pertanian Malaysia Bukit Kayu Hitam's hostel about 5.20pm. However, at today's proceedings, deputy public prosecutor Mohammed Mokhzani Faris Mokhtar told the appellate court that the Attorney-General's Chambers had accepted the accused's representation for the charge to be reduced to infanticide under Section 309A of the Penal Code.

The human rights activists have voiced deep concerns over the recent agreement entered between the government of Pakistan and Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) where both parties agreed to set up a counter-blasphemy wing at Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), and include the charge under section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act against blasphemy accused in addition to Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code, which carries a mandatory death penalty. They have urged the government to prioritize the safety and security of blasphemy accused, and introduce robust legal and administrative safeguards to prevent the misuse of blasphemy laws, rather than opening avenues for its further abuse.

On 16 June 2023, the government of Malaysia published in the official gazette two laws to repeal the mandatory death penalty and establish a resentencing process for those under the sentence of death and imprisonment for natural life. As the laws are about to come into force, Amnesty International Malaysia calls on the government to ensure the strictest observance of all fair trial guarantees and international safeguards in the forthcoming resentencing process, including by providing clarity on the process as a matter of urgency.

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — A federal judge is considering a joint motion to push back the sentencing hearing for the El Paso Walmart mass shooter. Defense attorneys for Patrick Crusius and United States prosecutors asked to have the sentencing start on July 5 at 9 a.m. The hearing is currently scheduled to begin on June 30. "This request is not for the purpose of delay, but rather to lessen the logistical burden on those wishing to participate and to allow for the greatest number of participants to attend the entirety of the proceedings," the joint motion filed Saturday stated. If United States District Judge David C. Guaderrama signs off on the motion, the sentencing will proceed as follows: On July 5, the pre-sentence report will be discussed and if any objections are announced, they will be resolved, the document states.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The sentencing phase of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting trial is set to begin next week and jurors will decide whether or not the convicted gunman should face the death penalty. Last week, Robert Bowers was convicted and found guilty of all 63 federal charges he was facing for the attack at the Tree of Life synagogue on October 27, 2018 when he killed 11 worshippers from three different congregations, Tree of Life, Dor Hadash, and New Light. It was the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history. Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Rose Mallinger, Jerry Rabinowitz, Cecil and David Rosenthal, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Melvin Wax, Irving Younger were all shot and killed that morning. 

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers put a man to death in public on Tuesday in the eastern province of Laghman, the supreme court said, the second confirmed official execution since the Islamist movement took over in 2021. The man was convicted of the murder of five people after an investigation by three courts, the Taliban-run Supreme Court said in a statement, without saying how he was executed. The punishment was carried out in the presence of regional Taliban officials, it said, adding that the execution had been approved by the supreme spiritual leader, who told judges last year to carry out punishments in line with sharia law.

Thousands have been arrested in the clampdown, with the judiciary handing down harsh sentences -- including the death penalty -- to protesters. Five more teachers who supported anti-government protests in Iran have been summoned to the Revolutionary Court, the latest in a series of similar moves, including trials, of teachers in other cities across the country. The Iranian Teachers' Union's Coordination Council has confirmed the collective summons of teachers and cultural rights activists in the central Iranian city of Yazd. Three of the teachers, Ahmad Changizi, Mehdi Kalantari, and Hamideh Zare, were previously arrested following a nationwide teachers' rally in May 2022, which coincided with Teacher's Day in Yazd. The other two are Mansor Mirzaei and Mohammad Fakhralhosseini.

Authorities in Iran closed down a beauty salon owned by Iranian actress Sareh Bayat for allegedly violating hijab codes, IranWire reports, just two days after its opening. The Public Security Police of the capital Tehran made an official statement on Monday, June 19, saying that the salon had been referred to the judicial authorities.  The closure was prompted by alleged "violations of the hijab code and the publication of related videos on social media," which authorities considered offensive to the public. All women in public spaces in Iran must conceal their hair with a headscarf, or hijab, and wear loose fitting trousers under their coats. Videos of Sareh Bayat's beauty salon opening went viral online due to the presence of prominent actor Mohammad Reza Golzar. 

Saudi authorities have executed a young man from the Shia-populated Qatif region over trumped-up allegations of involvement in terrorist activities, as part of a heavy-handed crackdown led by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince against political dissidents. The Saudi Ministry of Interior announced in a statement on Monday that the death sentence was carried out against Muslim bin Ahmed bin Musallam al-Milad. “Al-Milad, a Saudi national, joined a terrorist cell, which at times got into confrontations with security forces and carried out armed attacks on them,” the statement alleged. The statement claimed that al-Milad has “undermined domestic security,” and “traded in firearms and narcotics.”

On June 13, 2023, 51 of the 57 people on Louisiana’s death row filed clemency applications with the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole, asking Governor John Bel Edwards to commute their sentences to life without parole.  The clemency applications describe flaws in the individual cases – including mental illness and intellectual disability, innocence claims, and official misconduct – but cumulatively portray a death penalty system marked by significant systemic problems.  The board’s members, all of whom are appointed by Edwards, will weigh the applications individually and then send their recommendations to the governor, who leaves office in 2024.   “Looking at these cases collectively makes it clear that the system is fundamentally broken,” said Cecelia Kappel, Executive Director of the Louisiana Capital Appeals Project and an attorney for several of the prisoners who have filed clemency applications. “These applications show that the same problems o...

On June 15, 2023, five amicus briefs were filed with the United States Supreme Court in support of Robert Roberson, a Texas death-sentenced prisoner who has long claimed to be innocent of causing the death of his daughter.  Mr. Roberson filed his petition with the Supreme Court on May 11th after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) denied his request for a new trial despite the presentation of new scientific evidence that soundly discredited the “shaken baby syndrome” (SBS) theory the prosecution had relied upon at trial.  A 2021 evidentiary hearing had also presented compelling new medical evidence establishing that the victim, Mr. Roberson’s 2-year-old daughter, died of natural and accidental causes. 

Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); June 19, 2023: State media have reported the public execution of an unnamed man in a beach park in Bandar-e-Deylam in Khuzestan province. This is the second public execution in 2023. Repeating its warning about the resumption of public executions, Iran Human Rights urges the international community for urgent action to stop these state crimes. Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: “The international community must not tolerate such medieval punishments in 2023. Governments with diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic, particularly those in negotiations, must not turn a blind eye to these crimes.” According to Fars news agency, a man was publicly hanged in a park beach in Bandar-e-Deylam, Khuzestan province, on 18 June. The unnamed man was sentenced to qisas (retribution-in-kind) for the murder of two policemen on 29 March 2022.